søndag den 19. februar 2012

Well, that done, let´s move on!
Twined Knitting, taught to me last year at Stickfest i Väst, by Maria Gustafsson - inspiring as a teacher and patient, so patient!
For those of You not well aquainted with twined knitting, I can say that at first it feels like knitting with broken fingers. And then the fun really kicks off!

In basic terms, you throw the yarn with your right hand, you always knit with two ends or more, you twist the yarns at every stitch and by using knit or purl, and changing the positions of the yarns between right or wrong side of work, you can create elaborate geometric designs or textures. In short.

Here is a picture of a wristwarmer made in a cotton-silk mix:

And here are the mittens I made for the class I taught the other day:

I will be giving two twined knitting classes friday and saturday of Grib Garnet in Silkeborg, Denmark, in June.

Please attend!

I am also testknitting a pair of mittens for my friend Vithard. I think they are absolutely Royal!!

By the way - we got married last year - at Christiansø - a small group of islands called Ertholmene just north of Bornholm. We got married under a huge old walnut tree in a secret garden on the main island, on a sunny october day. Just us, the justice of peace and two witnesses from the local inn, that pampered us with good food, wine and very few other guests for the stay.

So, knit on - there will be more ideas and designs on twined knitting soon!

lørdag den 19. marts 2011

Since moving here in october, our family now includes three new members - Folke, Dolly and Gustav.

Folke is a VW truck from 1978 - we are planning to restore her to her original splendor, and then use her for getting building materials, (YARN), firewood (WOOL) and supplies for the garden.

The next two additions are of a more furry kind - Dolly and Gustav - two cats who have deigned themselves to stay with us - we are truly honored. (And sometimes a bit annoyed, but that propably goes both ways).

This is Dolly - she is Gustavs mother. She is always in an immaculate clean state, is a very light sleeper, loves yarn and is a bully!

Her son, Gustav, is the mildest mannered cat I have ever had. He is a very heavy sleeper, and sleeps like a teenager. He does not wash a lot, and loves his dry food and any kind og fish we serve! He is a mousecatcher, and easily scared. He has one very bad habit we are trying to help him with....

He loves to watch TV!!! He prefers something (anything!!!) with birds, people drawing things, political discussions, and any news-programs with a running news-line at the bottom of the screen.
We tell him not to sit too close, and that the bird on the screen is NOT behind the TV when he fails to catch it. Understandably, Carsten is a bit worried about his TV, at times.

Here he is watching the local channel - a show about eco-home-improvement. We are very proud.

Under the colorful and ambitious label of ´Bollywood´ meets Scandinavian Knitting she is creating patterns that are original, inspired and her very own - and with colors to die for. She also offers multi-color knitting classes, so are You ever in or near Copenhagen, look her up for a truly inspiring afternoon! Details can be found on her blog.

Back to the challenge - I have been given complete autonomy over which colors I want to testknit her Head Scarf in - I have chosen to work with the Tweed300 yarn as it is a 9/2 shetland, excellent for two-color knitting (and maybe also because YOU HAVE A HUGE STASH!!!, Red.)

Hm. Ok. On with it.

I decided to think about it this way: Bollywood design meets the cold, early danish spring and chose the colors I see right now in the garden -
the earthy hues of wet, brown dirt
the spry greens, some that are bitten by frost and turned a little yellow
the warm and light yellow of the early eranthis and white from the snowdrops
And thrown in for hope: purple for the first crocus soon to come.

søndag den 24. oktober 2010

Fall is SO here. My favorite time of year - not just due to the fact that wool is worn as a general rule, but also the gorgeous display nature puts on for us.
I have a few pics from our grounds and garden - see if any of them stirs any knitting ideas in YOUR mind.....
Ivy/vedbend:

Staghorn Sumac/hjortetak hunblomst:

Ivy/vedbend:

Thistle/tidsel:

Hip rose/Hyben rose:

Dawn Redwood/Vandgran:

The Dawn Redwood color is really hard to catch with the camera - it is salmon pink - almost glowing.
So, this is where I get my knitting inspiration - where do You get Yours?

torsdag den 21. oktober 2010

We have left Copenhagen and moved to our farmstead somewhere in the vicinity of the largest castle ruin in Northern Europe, to an island that for Denmark has a warm climate, warm enough to grow figs, and offers the highest number of sunlight hours of the kingdom - a place that generally is isolated from the rest of Denmark a few times every fall and winter due to too much wind for planes and ferries - and where just about 42000 people have chosen to live, love, work, die and last, but not least, create!

Bornholm.

The sunset view from our new home:

It will take us a while to get settled, but I will try to bring to You a mix of nature and knitting for the time to come.
In the meantime, here is a picture of our closest beach...
Our closest mountain.....
And our closest restaurant, Kadeau.....